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User blog:LexsJB/Is it time for Rainbow Magic to end?
Hello everyone, How's 2019 been for you so far? I've been editing way more frequently than I expected to, partly because of the release of a few fairies and new covers. Nothing new in this blog though, so more ranting and complaining. Last year I said I'd stop but there are some things that really can’t be ignored. I'm sure people my age find the wiki, see all the new fairies and think "geez isn't it time it ended???" That's what I'll be thinking about today right here. Delayed publications Many things have gone wrong for the Rainbow Magic company so far. Publish dates have been thrown around, moving some fairies forwards, some fairies back, and some fairies both ways. They keep fluttering around and they’re hard to keep still. Here's a list of the changes so far. *Kat the Jungle Fairy's been delayed 3 years *Hazel the Librarian Fairy's been delayed for 2 years *Padma the Pirate Fairy and Camilla the Christmas Present Fairy's been delayed for 1 year *2 After School Sports Fairies have been delayed for 6 months *Ivy the Worry Fairy's been delayed for 9 months *Discovery Fairies delayed for 2 weeks After School Sports Fairies A few of us have noticed that 2/4 of the After School Sports Fairies have been moved from October to March. The common RM schedule is publishing a series in March or early in the year, and a series in October at the end of the year, and the full timeline from what I've observed is below: However, why would half the After School Sports Fairies (wish there was an abbreviation for them I could use cos it's so long typing it out) be moved to the slot where the next series would be published? The company have done this before, moving half the Princess, Pop Star and Fashion fairies’ series to be published 2 months apart, but we still got 2 series in a year. It's so weird, I hope it's just a mistake... Low maintenance Continuity Writers are getting lazy. I saw they brought in a new Daisy Meadow contributor, Karen Ball, but I'm not sure if she's written anything since the Endangered Animals Fairies. And I can’t see the author of Sasha the Slime Fairy so if anyone does know please tell me. Something that happened a lot last year was mixing up Tippington and Wetherbury. For example, in Cara the Coding Fairy, the girls are in Wetherbury City, which is quite weird as it's known Wetherbury Village is in the middle of the countryside but then again some cities have smaller villages of the same name (but personally I've always seen Wetherbury in the centre of Wales (because the audiobooks had the Tates with welsh accents) and Tippington somewhere like in the Midlands close to a big city). But in the beginning, it's Mr Walker who drops them off at the coding conference, and Mr Walker who's friends with the professor. But why in Wetherbury? The second example is in the Endangered Animals Fairies, where the safari park Kirsty, Rachel and the Walkers visit is on the edge of Wetherbury Village. We can only wait and see if the authors will make any more mistakes. Another example is Annie the Detective Fairy where Rachel says she sees toadstools around Wetherbury. Pre-publish descriptions When setting up the front page for 'upcoming series' to be the Discovery fairies, I noticed all the descriptions are exactly the same apart from a few changed words. It's not even only the same template, but the same words! I'm pretty sure other people have noticed this much earlier but to me, it's just lazy. It's easier, but lazy. "Rachel and Kirsty are so excited to meet the Discovery Fairies, who look after some of the most exciting jobs in the world. But when Jack Frost steals '(fairy)'s magical item, '''(people fairy looks after) everywhere (something bad)! Can the girls help (fairy) defeat him and (something about saving things)?"'' Grammar 'Funnest' isn’t a word. It really isn't. Other series Orchard Books have also published various series aimed at girls that I think they hoped would take off like Rainbow Magic did. However, none of them have reached the popularity to last for as long as Rainbow Magic has, with poor 'Secret Princesses' lasting a mere 3 years. 'Secret Kingdom' lasted for 3 short and sweet years, but have reached worldwide popularity, being translated into many European languages, relatively successful to the other series. As Rainbow Magic has hung on for so long, would Orchard Books really drop its biggest seller? Low sales I don't know sales statistics of Rainbow Magic books but in my opinion, they are dropping in popularity. There are some reasons for this: *'Children and technology' Compared to 2003-2010 (approx. the golden years), the number of children owning technology and watching YouTube has seriously increased. Of course reading will never go out of fashion (depending on the way a kid's raised), but it will always be lower than what it used to be. *'New design' We all know the book covers changed a few years ago, but some other people might not have. I read something about how the juice company Tropicana redesigned the cartons to make it more modern. But now that they'd got rid of their trademark orange with the stripy straw sticking out of it, sales dropped because customers didn't warm to the design, or couldn't even find it because they were looking for the carton with the orange with the stripy straw on it. It's dramatic to compare a giant juice company with rainbow magic, but it's probably a common thing for all brands that have gone on for years. It could be possible that people might be looking for books with the rainbow on the corner and the swirly writing on the bottom left but it's not there anymore. *'Desperate ideas' Most of us have been saying this for a few years by now, but it's clear they are running out of ideas. The fact there's been a slime and mermicorn fairy, but also the fact that there's a squishy toy and a Christmas present fairy coming up; we've already had presents before: Holly the Christmas Fairy's 3 presents and Belle the Birthday Fairy's present and literally Jasmine the Present Fairy. Maybe they should pull a Doctor Who and scrap the Christmas specials and go for a New Years Eve/Day fairy (tbh I didn’t even like that new series of doctor who anyway so whatever). The only fairy I'm interested in is Jae the Boy Band Fairy, but I think it might be based on k-pop (partly because Jae, spelt like that, is a popular Korean name and because that group BTS became worldwide popular recently) and like 5 years ago I would've been so excited but I'm not right now. And anyway, 'After School Sports'? Some schools do trampolining in PE lessons, people bike-ride any time they like and sometimes on the way to school. Couldn't they be called like 'extreme sports fairies' or something less specific? Final words I know I've called an end to the series two times already and I've laid off making blogs every time I think it's going to end because 1 – I just look stupid, and 2 – it just keeps going. Who knows if it will end soon, the series has been going on for more than 15 years after all. But since it is my blog, I will put in my own points on whether it should end or not. It should end: *always put on the backburner *fickle publish dates *dropping in quality, put it out of its misery quietly... *parents HATE!! It shouldn't end: *I'd be quite disappointed for the wiki, as there would be nothing new to do. *lots of topics to explore even if they'd have the same old plot – music/film genres, food that aren't sweets, siblings/family, types of games (video, board games, playground games), the INTERNET (youtube videos, blogging, social media), mythology, a homework fairy..., space/sci-fi, musical theatre productions, beauty (spa treatment things) etc. *children need to read – these are at a good level for learning *Orchard Books need this Thanks for reading! LexsJBTalk 17:49, January 19, 2019 (UTC) (updated 3 April) More words/blog promoting I'll link all the blogs about things that have gone wrong with the series if you want to see a larger argument. Of course, if you're not up for even more negativity, don't force yourself to. The end? – 1st of my end-calling blogs The end? (again?) – 2nd of my end-calling blogs Rainbow Rants – insulting a lot of things about the series Mistakes – PrincessRosalina shows publishing errors on the inside covers of books Help me! – demonstrating Amathist1998's problem with kat the jungle fairy Just an observation – Ouran-After-High's comparison on old and new series' plotlines The creation of a very special fairy – already linked this one but my problems with fairies about trends My gripes with the series – CoolStar1998 shows more errors in books The Evolution of Illustrations – I overanalyse illustrations, adding in my opinion But you might want some positivity about the series, so here you go: My Favourite RM Books From Every Series I Have. – what the title says What’s your favorite Jack Frost battle? – Lalalei2001 says good things about book climaxes Rainbow Reminiscing – I say nice memories about the series Tiana the Toy Fairy 2 review – I actually say some nice things about a new book Thinking about RM – CoolStar1998 says good things about her history with the series Thoughts on the Fashion Fairies Series – Bloominjulie says good things about the Fashion Fairies series Why kidnaps are better than goblin transformations – CupcakeDancerTheSecond says good things about the series Category:Blog posts